Can we ever get enough of ourselves? Apparently not, as a new museum opening in Las Vegas might suggest.

My name is Catharine Hamm, and I’m the travel editor for the Los Angeles Times. We also have stories this month for you about how brides can party for free, the good news about Vegas taxi fares, a golf course with greens fees that are out of this world, plus an update on a little Vegas side trip and a tip to how to keep cool in Vegas, which is having weather right now that’s almost hockey-season chilly (for Vegas). Let’s get started.

Museum of Selfies, Take 2

You may know the Museum of Selfies from its Hollywood location, but if you missed it and find yourself near the Miracle Mile Shops beginning Friday or later, you may want to wander in for a look-see. The opening brings a chance to be seen and photographed on a couple of thrones. But writer Mary Forgione also directs you to some authentic selfie spots in Vegas for the real deal.

Playing a round can be expensive

We mean a round of golf, of course. You can head to Wynn’s newly reopened greens and tee off on the Strip. You’ll have to pony up $550 for this pleasure but, on the other hand, you may get picked up in a Rolls-Royce. Oh, and you may actually be able to recoup some of your cost on the par-70 course, Michael Hiller writes: If you shoot a hole-in-one on No. 18, you’ll get a cash prize.

Conserving your cash

Those who have taken a cab from McCarran International Airport know that a taxi trip can take a chunk of change, especially if your driver takes you on a route where you’ll be stalled in traffic forever, called “long hauling,” which increases your fare. Enter the flat rate from the airport to Strip hotels, Jay Jones writes. Your fare will start at $19, no matter how many obstacles you encounter from here to there.

And here’s another way to save money

If you’re getting married, you and your gal pal/besties/bridesmaids can party in fine fashion, starting with a limo. The group can get a six-for-the-price-of-five package, Mary Forgione writes, which starts with your transportation and includes tickets to “Thunder From Down Under,” Jell-O shots and Champagne. (You don’t even really have to be a bridal party — there just must be six of you.)

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Of Kings and Knights

Of course we have the Los Angeles Kings or Anaheim Ducks as our local hockey teams, but if you’re having hockey withdrawal, consider a game played on ice and not at the tables. The Golden Knights had a Cinderella first year, meeting the Washington Capitals in the Stanley Cup Finals and ultimately being defeated in five games. The team is now in its third season, and if you’re looking for updates, game news, etc., check out the Las Vegas Review Journal’s coverage.

And speaking of ice

It’s about to get a whole lot more chill on the Linq Promenade. Minus5, which already has ice bars at Mandalay Bay and the Venetian’s Grand Canal Shoppes, will create a stand-alone Icebar, starting with 650 blocks of sparkling clear Canadian ice. Inside the lounge you’ll find ice carvings of Golden Knights players and daredevil Evel Knievel. And of course, you can get a frosty cocktail too.

Concierges, your new BFF

They are one of the best-kept secrets in the city, a “society of ninjas” that gets things done. Hotel concierges can grant your every wish — if you think to ask. Some of them shared their finest moments with us, like what they did for a very special 21st birthday.

Reaching out and reading us

Let’s start with the easy part first. If you have a comment or a complaint, a compliment or a conundrum, please write to us at [email protected].

If you’re reading this online, please know that you can have this delivered directly to your inbox for a price that just doesn’t get any better than this: This newsletter and others at the L.A. Times are free. You need only sail over to the membership center and sign up.

Finally, think about subscribing to the L.A. Times. It keeps us vibrant when we know you like what we do because we do it with you, the Southern California reader, in mind.

And finally

We’ll be changing up the format of this newsletter next month, but before we do it, we want to hear from you. Tell us here about the kinds of stories, tips and other information you’d like to see.

Until next time, we wish you all the fun you can find and all the cash you need to have it.

Several residential builders have stopped buying and installing Google’s Nest devices after the internet giant overhauled how Nest technology works with other gadgets.

The Alphabet Inc. unit bought Nest in 2014 for $3.2 billion to enter the smart-home market. Nest has become one of the largest makers of internet-connected thermostats, smoke alarms and locks.

The devices were popular with builders who saw a Nest gadget as a way to increase the value of properties. But this year, that began to change as Google exerted more control over Nest and started changing the underlying technology.

As a more independent business, Nest developed software that helped its gadgets communicate with a wide range of products from other manufacturers, through accounts set up directly by users.

As of the end of August this year, however, consumers need a Google account — and access to the company’s voice-based Google Assistant service — to integrate new Nest products with other devices in their homes.

The move may help the internet giant weave its Google Assistant deeper into people’s lives. But for builders it’s just a pain because Nest devices no longer work so well with the other gadgets they install in homes, such as audio and entertainment systems, as well as alarms and other security gear. It’s also a less enticing user proposition with all the privacy permissions that Google Assistant requires.

That has led some builders — who collectively purchase tens of thousands of Nest devices each year — to avoid Nest products.

“We’ve stopped,” said Mark Zikra, vice president of technology at CA Ventures, which builds and operates apartments, senior homes and other property. “In an apartment complex we’re talking about 200, 300 devices that would be installed in one swoop and then all of a sudden everyone moves in. We don’t have the luxury of being able to say, ‘Hey, are you a Google person or are you a Honeywell person?’”

Similar sentiments were shared by others in the construction industry, including two large systems-integration firms that work with hundreds of builders across the United States.

For Sean Weiner, chief technology officer of Bravas Group, the main sticking point is Google’s decision to tie its digital assistant to Nest products. Bravas installs smart-home devices and audio systems in about 3,500 high-end homes a year, and the ability to connect to as many different gadgets as possible is the most important feature. Digital assistants can’t handle these larger, more complex systems, according to Weiner.

“If we put that control in the hands of Google, we’ve lost that control,” he said.

This could dent Nest sales at a time when Google is trying to generate more revenue from consumer hardware. Commercial installers and builders are an important source of smart-home sales, and Nest had developed a program to train professionals how to hook up its gadgets.

Google has said it is being more selective with outside partners to increase security and privacy. At an event this month in New York City, the company highlighted how its home devices and smartphones work together to provide functionality that consumers can’t get unless they go all-in with Google technology. Still, the company is working to increase the number of other devices Nest products work with.

That’s little comfort for builders in the middle of existing projects, such as David Berman, who has been installing electronics in homes since the 1960s. Now, his company sets up networks of smart-home devices in thousands of homes a year. When Google said this year that Nest’s integration technology was changing, he stopped using Nest devices.

“We were more or less forced into the switch,” he said. “When people buy a connected device, they expect it to connect. That’s not something that happens with Nest anymore.”

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Google isn’t alone in trying to tie its devices to a digital assistant. Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. have pursued similar goals, and the smart-home market increasingly revolves around the tech giants, with manufacturers of light bulbs, thermostats, smoke alarms and more struggling to make their wares compatible with all three.

Even though Nest has been owned by Google for five years, it hadn’t been fully pulled into the internet giant’s orbit until now.

When Google announced the acquisition in 2014, Nest said it would share user data only with its own products and services, not Google’s. In a blog post, Nest co-founder Matt Rogers said that “Nest data will stay with Nest” and that the company wasn’t changing its terms of service.

It didn’t take long for that to change. And Rogers’ blog post is no longer available on Nest’s website. Less than six months after the deal, Nest said Google would connect some of its apps, letting Google know whether Nest users were at home. The integration enabled those people to set the temperature of their homes with voice commands and helped Google’s digital assistant set the temperature automatically when it detected the people were returning home.

Initially, smart-home products connected to “home hubs” that acted as a gateway linking many devices — even if they used different communication standards and protocols. “That idea has mostly died” as tech giants take over that central role with their voice assistants and smart speakers, said Frank Gillett, an analyst at Forrester Research.

“This is a symptom of a larger challenge in the smart-home arena,” he added.

Interoperability doesn’t need to be compromised for security and privacy, said Aaron Emigh, chief executive of Brilliant Home Technology Inc., which makes a centralized hub that hosts Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.

Amazon put Brilliant through many tests, on topics including audio quality and the ability to stop hacks. The same hasn’t happened with Google, he said. Google devices, such as its Home smart speakers, can be used to control Brilliant’s hub with your voice, but the integration is incomplete compared with Alexa, Emigh added.

“What they’re doing is creating a lot of mistrust around Google, and that’s then causing people to deselect Google and Nest as technology platforms,” Emigh said. “That’s happening in droves.”

De Vynck writes for Bloomberg.

Five months after the Trump administration blacklisted China’s Huawei Technologies Co., its business seems alive and well while American firms still don’t know whether they can work with the Chinese company or not.

The Department of Commerce in May added Huawei to what’s known as the entity list in an effort to block U.S. companies from selling components to China’s largest technology company, which it accuses of being a threat to America’s national security. Huawei has denied those claims.

Despite those actions, Huawei reported last week that its revenue grew 24% in the first ninth months of 2019, boosted by a 26% jump in smartphone shipments. There are also signs that U.S. efforts to block the company from the development of 5G technology have yet to make a big dent: Huawei said it has signed more than 60 5G commercial contracts to date worldwide.

The entity listing, which requires American firms to obtain a government license in order to sell to blacklisted firms, has caused complications for U.S. companies.

Tech leaders and their lawyers have argued for months in closed-door meetings with Trump administration officials that the blacklisting of Huawei, one of their biggest customers, is detrimental to their businesses. Many industry executives are confused about the administration’s end goals and haven’t been able to get clarity on when license approvals will be offered despite those discussions, according to several people familiar with the matter.

President Trump said in June after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Osaka, Japan, that he’d “easily’’ agreed to allow American firms to continue certain exports to Huawei. Weeks later Trump said he’d accelerate the approval process for licenses but none has been granted so far. The president as recently as this month green-lighted the approval of licenses in a meeting with advisors, according to people familiar with the matter, but an announcement has yet to be made.

The Commerce Department, in a statement, said it has received more than 200 license requests about Huawei and its affiliates. “Given the complexity of the matter, the interagency process is ongoing to ensure we correctly identified which licenses were safe to approve,” according to the statement. “Moreover, the Temporary General License remains in effect and was recently renewed.”

Micron Technology Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Mehrotra said in September that the lack of decision on its license applications could result in a worsening decline in sales over the coming quarters. The company gave a disappointing quarterly profit forecast last month, pointing in part to the Huawei restrictions. Broadcom Inc. in June also slashed its annual forecast, citing the U.S.-China trade war and disruption to its relationship with Huawei.

One of the industry’s main arguments for allowing shipments of non-national security-sensitive items is that Huawei can buy some of those components from competitors around the world, including South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

“Unless the ban succeeds in ‘killing’ Huawei, the result will be reduced U.S. global market share in a number of technology areas, something that will hurt, not help U.S. tech competitiveness,’’ said Robert Atkinson, president of ITIF, a Washington-based think tank.

Some firms have resumed shipments to Huawei even without a verdict on license requests. After a closer look at the rules since May, they determined they could continue supplying products based on an export control law. The rule doesn’t subject a product or service to the entity listing’s constraints if a company can prove that a piece of technology owes less than 25% of its origins to U.S.-based activities.

Micron in June said it had resumed some memory chip shipments to Huawei. Intel Corp., the U.S.’s biggest chipmaker with plants in Oregon, New Mexico and Arizona, has as well. The company also has facilities in Ireland, Israel and China — enabling it to argue that a chunk of the intellectual property in its chips isn’t created in the U.S.

“We know many U.S. companies continue to ship to Huawei but do so using murky workarounds by way of other countries and third parties,” said Samm Sacks, a cybersecurity fellow at New America, a think tank. “It’s questionable whether the Huawei ban has helped U.S. national security so much as created a messy tangle of new problems.”

James McGregor, chairman of consulting firm APCO Worldwide’s greater China region, said he’s focused on what unintended consequences may result from the White House’s actions.

“I’m worried about tech companies decoupling from America over time by removing some of their operations from the U.S.,” McGregor said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday. “They have to look out for the long-term disruption of their business.”

Atkinson cautioned not to over-interpret Huawei’s sales figures because the company has been stockpiling supplies for a while, in anticipation of the U.S. action. He said fourth-quarter sales will be a more accurate indicator of the export ban’s effect, or whether the company has largely circumvented it.

Huawei has said it expects U.S. export restrictions to reduce annual revenue at its consumer devices business by about $10 billion, in part because Google can no longer supply Android updates and apps from Gmail to Maps for the Chinese company’s newest handsets.

Trump has indicated on various occasions that he’d be willing to consider removing the ban on Huawei for better terms in a trade agreement, drawing sharp criticism from China hawks on Capitol Hill.

With the U.S. reaching a “phase one” deal with China earlier this month, the big question now is whether Trump will consider removing Huawei from the entity list or ease restrictions. When announcing the accord on Oct. 11, the administration said the issue wouldn’t be part of this initial pact but that it could be a part of phase two.

Leonard and King write for Bloomberg.

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Here’s a look at what roughly $750,000 buys in the resort communities of Palm Springs, La Quinta and Idyllwild in Riverside County.

PALM SPRINGS: A double-height living room with a stacked-stone fireplace anchors this contemporary two-story home in a gated community.

Address: 445 N. Avenida Caballeros, Palm Springs, 92262

Listed for: $749,000 for two bedrooms, three bathrooms in 2,426 square feet (3,000-square-foot lot)

Features: Tile floors; lofted office; master suite with clerestories; community pool and spa

About the area: In the 92262 ZIP Code, based on 57 sales, the median price for single-family homes in August was $578,000, up 12.2% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

LA QUINTA: More modern than others in the area, this single-story spot boasts an expansive open floor plan brightened by glass walls and clerestory windows.

Address: 57600 Salida Del Sol, La Quinta, 92253

Listed for: $749,999 for three bedrooms, four bathrooms in 2,856 square feet (9,583-square-foot lot)

Features: Living room with built-in fireplace; master suite with backyard access; spacious covered patio; mountain views

About the area: In the 92253 ZIP Code, based on 99 sales, the median price for single-family homes in August was $442,000, up 3.9% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

IDYLLWILD: Perched on over an acre, this three-story cabin with a newly added wing enjoys views of Lily Rock and Suicide Rock from a glass solarium and wraparound deck.

Address: 54790 Forest Haven Drive, Idyllwild, 92549

Listed for: $749,000 for four bedrooms, three bathrooms in 3,212 square feet (1.37-acre lot)

Features: Bamboo floors; wood-beamed ceilings; stone fireplaces; wing with two master suites

About the area: In the 92549 ZIP Code, based on 15 sales, the median price for single-family homes in August was $362,000, up 16.8% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

PALM SPRINGS: Solar panels and an electric car charger help with bills for this modern home with bright splashes of color and porcelain tile floors.

Address: 767 E. Twin Palms Drive, Palm Springs, 92264

Listed for: $760,000 for three bedrooms, two bathrooms in 1,793 square feet (5,227-square-foot lot)

Features: Gated entry; living room with freestanding fireplace; modern kitchen; swimming pool and spa

About the area: In the 92264 ZIP Code, based on 26 sales, the median price for single-family homes in August was $905,000, up 37.1% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

LA QUINTA: This Spanish-style home in the Haciendas at La Quinta community sits right on the fairway, soaking in mountain and golf course views.

Address: 77925 Laredo, La Quinta, 92253

Listed for: $739,000 for three bedrooms, 2.75 bathrooms in 2,329 square feet (6,970-square-foot lot)

Features: Rotunda entry; tan-toned living spaces; arched doorways; swimming pool and spa

About the area: In the 92253 ZIP Code, based on 99 sales, the median price for single-family homes in August was $442,000, up 3.9% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

IDYLLWILD: Voluminous living spaces with brick walls and beamed ceilings take in sweeping views throughout this private retreat on 2.6 acres.

Address: 55001 Forest Haven Drive, Idyllwild, 92549

Listed for: $749,000 for four bedrooms, four bathrooms in 4,225 square feet (2.68-acre lot)

Features: Vermont oak floors; living room with oxen yoke mantle; master suite with lookout tower; two hillside decks

About the area: In the 92549 ZIP Code, based on 15 sales, the median price for single-family homes in August was $362,000, up 16.8% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

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Google lured billions of consumers to its digital services by offering copious free cloud storage. That’s beginning to change.

The Alphabet Inc. unit has whittled down some free storage offers in recent months while prodding more users toward a new paid cloud subscription called Google One. That’s happening as the amount of data people stash online continues to soar.

When people hit those caps, they realize they have little choice but to start paying or risk losing access to emails, photos and personal documents. The cost isn’t excessive for most consumers, but at the scale Google operates, this could generate billions of dollars in extra revenue each year for the company. Google didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

A big driver of the shift is Gmail. Google shook up the email business when Gmail launched in 2004 with much more free storage than rivals were providing at the time. It boosted the storage cap every couple of years, but in 2013 it stopped. People’s in-boxes kept filling up. And now that some of Google’s other free storage offers are shrinking, consumers are beginning to get nasty surprises.

“I was merrily using the account and one day I noticed I hadn’t received any email since the day before,” said Rod Adams, a nuclear energy analyst and retired naval officer. After using Gmail since 2006, he’d finally hit his 15-gigabyte cap and Google had cut him off. Switching from Gmail wasn’t an easy option because many of his social and business contacts reach him that way.

“I just said, ‘OK, been free for a long time, now I’m paying,’” Adams said.

Other Gmail users aren’t so happy about the changes. “I am unreasonably sad about using almost all of my free google storage. Felt infinite. Please don’t make me pay! I need U gmail googledocs!,” one person tweeted in September.

Some people have tweeted panicked messages to Google in recent months as warnings about their storage limits hit.

One self-described tech enthusiast said he’s opened multiple Gmail accounts to avoid bumping up on Google’s storage limits.

Google has also ended or limited other promotions recently that gave people free cloud storage and helped them avoid Gmail crises. New buyers of Chromebook laptops used to get 100 GB at no charge for two years. In May 2019 that was cut to one year.

Google’s Pixel smartphone, originally launched in 2016, came with free, unlimited photo storage via the company’s Photos service. The latest Pixel 4 handset that came out in October still has free photo storage, but the images are compressed now, reducing the quality.

More than 11,500 people in a week signed an online petition to bring back the full, free Pixel photos deal. Evgeny Rezunenko, the petition organizer, called Google’s change a “hypocritical and cash-grabbing move.”

“Let us remind Google that part of the reason of people choosing Pixel phones over other manufacturers sporting a similar hefty price tag was indeed this service,” he wrote.

Smartphones dramatically increased the number of photos people take — one estimate put the total for 2017 at 1.2 trillion. Those images quickly fill up storage space on handsets, so tech companies, including Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Google, offered cloud storage as an alternative. Now as those online memories pile up, some of these companies are charging users to keep them.

Apple has been doing this for several years, building its iCloud storage service into a lucrative recurring revenue stream. When iPhone users get notifications that their devices are full and they should either delete photos and other files or pay more for cloud storage, people often choose the cloud option.

In May, Google unveiled Google One, a replacement for its Drive cloud storage service. There’s a free 15 GB tier — enough room for about 5,000 photos, depending on the resolution. Then it costs $1.99 a month for 100 GB and up from there. This includes several types of files previously stashed in Google Drive, plus Gmail emails and photos and videos. The company ended its Chromebook two-year 100-GB free storage offer around the same time, while the Pixel free photo storage deal ended in October with the release of the Pixel 4.

Gmail, Drive and Google Photos have more than 1 billion users each. As the company whittles away free storage offers and prompts more people to pay, that creates a potentially huge new revenue stream for the company. If 10% of Gmail users sign up for the new $1.99-a-month Google One subscription, that would generate almost $2.4 billion a year in annual recurring sales for the company.

Adams, the Gmail user, is one of the people contributing to this growing Google business. The monthly $1.99 is a relatively small price to pay to avoid losing his main point of digital contact with the world.

“It’s worked this long,” Adams said. “I didn’t want to bother changing the address.”

De Vynck writes for Bloomberg.

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif.  — 

The lout in the next motel room is up early, so I guess we’re all up early. Our neighbor is stomping around, coughing, sputtering, showering.

This is the kind of motel you end up at when you have a pet in tow: cheap compromises made of rice paper and matchsticks.

One guest showers, we all shower.

When the maid service knocks, the workers don’t say “housekeeping.” They yell, “Get out while you can!!!”

Listen, I don’t mind bargain lodging. For we are back in my forest primeval, the Eastern Sierra, a range of snow and pine that stretches up the 395, California’s slender neck.

Lone Pine. Big Pine. No Pine. Highway 395’s timeless little towns are roadside attractions. I could make a weekend stopping in every bait and tackle shop along the way, bumming the free coffee in the back.

And finally, at the top of it all: Mammoth Lakes, a snowy masterwork, land of wood smoke and heavy socks.

I am probably too easily charmed, yet I am smitten by the ski village’s pre-winter stacks of pine outside almost every cabin. Think of the labor that goes into that, the anticipation, the Puritan spirit. A good wood pile, split and properly stacked, is the triumphant afterlife of trees. It is Longfellow with a whiskey chaser.

With me I have a boy, a pet wolf and a phone full of photos. It’s our second day here, and the Sierra aspen are turning to gold bullion. Radiant is too weak a word.

White Fang is a magnificent wolf-dog, by the way, blue-eyed and with the hint of an upper-crust upbringing. That’s a false front, but I’m fond of those as well.

Pretense has always been strangely alluring to me, almost a puzzle to be solved. It reveals a tender spot in my character, I’m sure, a soft, mossy flaw. But bony and pretentious Gwyneth Paltrow would be, like, my dream date.

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Yet this wolf is a far better person. For one, White Fang doesn’t talk about wellness. She’d never scold me for eating a Slim Jim and leaving the wrapper on the dash. She’s good company that way, as is my son, who is my sidekick and merely my entire life.

Like him, the temp is in the teens this morning. A mug of coffee feels good against the hand. The boy, legally married now to his cellphone, shudders as we head off for a hike.

As you know, Shakespeare was like an undertaker — he saw death everywhere, including autumn’s gasping, quivering trees.

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

He was pretty good, Shakespeare. He called autumn, “Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.” But I see it as a roaring aria.

On days like this, I wish October were 90 days long.

Some Saturdays, you just need someone to knock around with, and that’s this boy. We are the oddest couple ever, a before-and-after cautionary tale. He is tall and handsome as timber. I am what happens when you spend too much time in your car.

The dog bonds us. As you may remember, she belonged to my late son, and now — as if an angel, as if on some sort of mission of mercy — she splashes across mountain streams, tugs playfully on her leash, bounds along these trails she once shared with him.

Dogs do God’s work, and they never ask for much — a bowl of the most awful food, a scratch behind the ears.

The young dog is our jester — heck, they’re both jesters. You should see her giggle when the boy checks her for ticks. Turns out she’s a little ticklish just about everywhere.

By late morning, the three of us have threaded our way through the trails of June Lake, down by a lake called Silver, one of California’s most magnificent playpens.

At Silver Lake, long corridors of aspen ring the shoreline, and a dark little stream empties out amid some campsites set in high grass.

Campsite No. 18 is the most splendid, but really you can’t miss here, if you like to fish or kayak or ponder the freckles on your wrist. It is good for all of that.

On the north shore are these sprawling summer places; legendary director Frank Capra once kept a cabin there. It has the feel of rural Pennsylvania, a Bedford Falls set against the backdrop of Carson Peak, a close cousin of Half Dome (they share the same movie-star chin).

To be sure, it’s a cinematic setting that Capra must’ve loved. The sunlight — California’s famed butterscotch beams — flatters everything it touches here.

The trees, the pumpkins, our raw and stubborn souls.

[email protected]

KYIV, Ukraine — 

More than two months before the phone call that launched the impeachment inquiry against President Trump, Ukraine’s newly elected leader was already worried about pressure from the U.S. president to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Volodymyr Zelensky gathered a small group of advisors on May 7 in the capital of Kyiv for a meeting that was supposed to be about his nation’s energy needs. Instead, the group spent most of the three-hour discussion talking about how to navigate the insistence from Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, for an investigation and how to avoid becoming entangled in the American elections, according to three people familiar with the details of the meeting.

They spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue, which has roiled U.S.-Ukrainian relations.

The meeting came before Zelensky was inaugurated but about two weeks after Trump called to offer his congratulations on the night of the Ukrainian leader’s April 21 election.

The full details of what the two leaders discussed in that Easter Sunday phone call have never been publicly disclosed, and it is not clear whether Trump explicitly asked for an investigation of Biden and his son Hunter.

The three people’s recollections differ on whether Zelensky specifically cited that first call with Trump as the source of his unease. But their accounts all show the Ukrainian president-elect was wary of Trump’s push for an investigation into the former vice president and Hunter Biden’s business dealings.

Either way, the newly elected leader of a country wedged between Russia and U.S.-aligned NATO members knew early on that vital military support might depend on whether he was willing to choose a side in an American political tussle. A former comedian who won office on promises to clean up corruption, Zelensky’s first major foreign policy test came not from his enemy Russia, but rather from the country’s most important ally, the United States.

The May 7 meeting included two of his top aides, Andriy Yermak and Andriy Bogdan, the people said. Also in the room was Andriy Kobolyev, head of the state-owned natural gas company Naftogaz, and Amos Hochstein, an American who sits on the Ukrainian company’s supervisory board. Hochstein is a former diplomat who advised Biden on Ukraine matters during the Obama administration.

Zelensky’s office in Kyiv did not respond to messages on Wednesday seeking comment. The White House would not comment on whether Trump demanded an investigation during the April 21 call.

The White House has offered only a bare-bones public readout on the April call, saying Trump urged Zelensky and the Ukrainian people to implement reforms, increase prosperity and “root out corruption.” In the intervening months, Trump and his proxies have frequently used the word “corruption” to reference the months-long efforts to get the Ukrainians to investigate Democrats.

Trump has said he would release a transcript of the first call, but the White House had no comment Wednesday on when, or if, that might happen.

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After news broke that a White House whistleblower had filed a complaint about his July 25 call with Zelensky, Trump said that the conversation was “perfect” and that he had asked his Ukrainian counterpart to do “whatever he can in terms of corruption because the corruption is massive.”

During the call, Trump asked Zelensky for “a favor,” requesting an investigation into a conspiracy theory related to a Democratic computer server hacked during the 2016 election campaign. Trump also pushed Zelensky to investigate the Bidens. Trump then advised Zelensky that Giuliani and Atty. Gen. William Barr would be contacting him about the request, according to a summary of the call released by the White House.

Within days, Giuliani flew to Madrid to meet privately with Yermak, Zelensky’s aide who was in the May 7 meeting.

Trump has denied that an investigation of the Bidens was a condition for releasing military aid. But on Tuesday, the senior U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, William Taylor, starkly contradicted the president, saying that Trump had demanded that everything Zelensky wanted, including the aid and a White House meeting, was conditional on a public vow that he would open an investigation.

Taylor also detailed previously undisclosed diplomatic interactions between Trump’s envoys and senior Ukrainian officials in which the U.S. president’s demand to investigate the Bidens in exchange for American aid was clear.

The continued flow of high-tech U.S. weaponry is seen as essential to the survival of the Ukrainian government, which has been locked in a long-running civil war with Russian-aligned separatists in the east of the country. In 2014, Russian troops took control of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Russia later annexed it, provoking Western sanctions against Moscow.

In a joint Sept. 25 news conference with Trump at the United Nations in New York, Zelensky denied that he felt pressured to investigate the Bidens.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be involved, to democratic, open elections of U.S.A.,” the Ukrainian leader said. “We had, I think, good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things, and I think, and you read it, that nobody push it. Push me.”

Trump then chimed in: “In other words, no pressure.”

Before Zelensky was elected, however, a public campaign to initiate investigations into the Bidens was already underway.

For weeks, conservative media outlets in the U.S. had trumpeted unfounded accusations that Biden, the Obama administration’s top envoy to the war-torn former Soviet republic, had sought the removal of the country’s top prosecutor in order to stymie an investigation of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that had hired his son to serve on its board.

Both Trump and Giuliani made public comments and tweets referencing the Biden accusations, with the president’s lawyer suggesting in a Fox News interview on April 7 that the U.S. Justice Department should investigate the matter.

One day before Zelensky’s May 7 meeting with his advisors, the U.S. State Department recalled its ambassador in Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, a career diplomat with a reputation for combating corruption. Yovanovitch had been the target of a yearlong campaign by Giuliani and his associates to discredit her.

When Trump called Zelensky on July 25 to congratulate the Ukrainian president on “a great victory” after his party won control of Ukrainian parliament, Zelensky downplayed his discomfort.

“The first time, you called me to congratulate me when I won my presidential election, and the second time you are now calling me when my party won the parliamentary election,” Zelensky said, according to the rough transcript. “I think I should run more often so you can call me more often, and we can talk over the phone more often.”

Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

‘Something Very, Very Special’ in Syria

President Trump has ordered an end to economic sanctions against Turkey that were imposed just over a week ago after that country’s invasion of Syria.

With that, Trump declared his moves in the region to be a success — “something very, very special” — despite widespread criticism from fellow Republicans and foreign policy experts that the U.S. withdrawal from the region has been a victory for Turkey and Russia.

“Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand,” Trump said of that heavily populated part of the Euphrates River valley. Trump added that a small number of U.S. troops would remain in Syria to secure oil fields.

Storming the SCIF

It was a made-for-TV (and social media) moment: About two dozen Republican members of Congress stormed a secure hearing room — known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF — in the U.S. Capitol basement. Those who walked in not only delayed the deposition of Defense Department official Laura Cooper but also entered with cellphones and appeared to tweet from the room, a violation of security protocols.

The uninvited legislators’ complaint? That the depositions being held in the facility as part of the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry are secretive and partisan.

But the reality inside the closed-door hearings is more complex: Forty-seven Republican lawmakers from three House committees have been allowed to attend and participate in all of the depositions so far, though their role is constrained by the Democratic majority.

More Politics

— Career diplomats who are reviled by Trump are providing the evidence that could be used to impeach him.

— Rep. Katie Hill, a Democrat from Santa Clarita, is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee after allegations that she engaged in an affair with a congressional aide were made public last week.

— Three judges on a federal appeals panel appeared inclined to reject arguments that Trump’s tax returns can’t be given to a state grand jury, with Trump’s lawyers suggesting that local authorities should even let the president get away with shooting someone.

Today’s Fire Lesson: Be Prepared

Large swaths of California once again will be without power today amid concerns that hot weather and strong winds could lead to wildfires. (See the maps for PG&E and Southern California Edison customers.) Overnight Wednesday, a rapidly spreading wildfire driven by strong winds exploded in Sonoma County, prompting evacuation orders for some residents.

Should the worst happen, a new report on last year’s Woolsey fire has this advice: Take responsibility for your own preparedness and safety. (Here’s one way to start.)

The report details how the most destructive fire in L.A. County and Ventura County history overwhelmed the region’s emergency response institutions. A Times investigation in January found that the first critical hours of the firefighting were hampered by communication breakdowns and a lack of air tanker support, equipment and firefighters.

A Curious Case

Last year, a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide detective was temporarily banned from the jails after posing as a deputy and bringing contraband for an inmate, according to county records and interviews. This year, Mark Lillienfeld was rehired by Sheriff Alex Villanueva to investigate public corruption. What’s going on here? Read on — and watch the video.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

He played in six World Series and six All-Star games. He stole 197 bases. He played every infield and outfield position. His career average was .311. And as the first African American major league baseball player in the modern era, Jackie Robinson endured threats on his life.

On this date in 1972, Robinson, 53, “succumbed of a heart attack in the 25th year since his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers shattered baseball’s color barrier,” as The Times’ obituary noted.

Read more about “the grandson of a slave, a man who emerged from a small house on Pepper Street in Pasadena to become one of the nation’s greatest athletes and a symbol of hope for Black America.”

CALIFORNIA

— In a move that is raising questions about the future of Yosemite National Park, the National Park Service has announced that it is reassigning park Supt. Mike Reynolds, a 34-year park service veteran who grew up in Yosemite.

— Jane Buckingham, a Beverly Hills marketing executive who wrote a book on parenting before she was arrested and charged with conspiring to rig her son’s ACT exam, has been sentenced to three weeks in prison.

— After The Times reported last week that nearly 300 drinking water wells and other water sources in California had been contaminated with toxic chemicals linked to cancer, readers have been looking for answers. Here’s a look at what you can and can’t do at home.

— Actress Rose McGowan has filed a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein and his team of high-powered lawyers and covert investigators, accusing them of carrying out a plot to discredit and silence her.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— Film critic Justin Chang calls “Terminator: Dark Fate” the best “Terminator” sequel in more than 20 years.

— After finally breaking her silence on a songwriting dispute surrounding her summer smash “Truth Hurts,” Lizzo has filed a lawsuit against the Raisen brothers, the L.A.-based songwriters who claim they deserve credit on the track.

— HBO Max is reviving Cartoon Network’s “Adventure Time” with new specials that will head back to the Land of Ooo.

NATION-WORLD

— The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked vaping to 1,479 cases of a mysterious lung disease over the last six months. At least 33 people have died since the outbreak began. The recent deaths are tragic, but research shows that the toll of vaping — with or without THC — will be far worse over the long term.

— In Chile, protests over social injustices and curfews have spread to most of the country, resulting in at least 18 deaths and an unprecedented state of emergency.

— British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears to be pushing for an early general election after Parliament blocked a fast-track plan to approve his Brexit deal before Britain’s scheduled departure from the European Union on Oct. 31.

— A century after gray wolves were all but eradicated from Washington state, it is trying to encourage the return of the predators. But it’s also killing them.

BUSINESS

— Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg struggled to convince Congress of the merits of the company’s plans for a cryptocurrency in light of all the other challenges the company has failed to solve.

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— For the first time ever, a quantum computer has performed a computational task that would be essentially impossible for a conventional computer to complete, according to a team from Google.

— WeWork is planning to cut as many as 4,000 jobs as part of an aggressive turnaround plan put in place by Japan’s SoftBank after it took control of the co-working business this week.

SPORTS

— The Galaxy and LAFC will meet in tonight’s much-anticipated MLS Western Conference semifinal at Banc of California Stadium. It could come down to stars Zlatan Ibrahimovic versus Carlos Vela. (And while you’re at it, sign up for our weekly soccer newsletter.)

— The Washington Nationals have taken a commanding 2-0 lead in the World Series with a 12-3 win over the Houston Astros.

OPINION

— Faced with the most damning impeachment testimony yet, Republicans have gone into full clown mode, writes Jon Healey, our deputy editorial page editor.

— Why American poultry — and Trump — have loomed large in the Brexit debate.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— Rare visits to two prisons for former residents of Islamic State-held territory in northeastern Syria, including many children, show a growing legal and humanitarian crisis. (New York Times)

— A funeral for a melted glacier in Iceland suggests new ways to think about climate change. (The New Yorker)

ONLY IN L.A.

Tomy’s Hamburgers. Tom’s Number 5 Chiliburgers. Tam’s Burgers. Tommy’s Famous Drive-Thru. Thomas Hamburgers. Tom’s #1 World Famous Chiliburgers. Tomboy’s Famous Chili Hamburgers. Tom’s Jr. Famous Chili Burgers. Tom’s Original Super Burger. Tommy’s Charbroiled Hamburgers. Tommy’s Burgers. All of them are Los Angeles area fast-food spots that sell chili burgers. And none of them is Original Tommy’s World Famous Hamburgers. According to an analysis by The Times, there are 67 restaurants in and around Los Angeles County that appear to be Tommy’s knockoffs.

If you like this newsletter, please share it with friends. Comments or ideas? Email us at [email protected].

On October 23, Vogue Australia creative director Jillian Davison (above) was crowned 2019’s Outstanding Creative at the 2019 Australian Fashion Laureate Awards, which took place at the iconic Café Sydney. The honour, which served to highlight Davison’s achievements and creative contribution to the Australian fashion industry, was accompanied by eight other awards across categories including womenswear, menswear, retailer, accessories, modelling, and emerging talent.

Davison returned to the Vogue Australia family as the publications’s creative director just last year, after an impressive run internationally as the fashion director of Glamour US, fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar US, and contributing editor at Teen Vogue, Vogue China, Vogue Germany and Vogue Japan. The ceremony also saw Vogue Australia cover star, Charlee Fraser, take home the award for Model of the Year.

After being judged by a panel of more than 30 industry leaders, the finalists from each category gathered together with fellow members of the Australian fashion industry at Café Sydney for a celebratory luncheon, where the winners across all nine categories were revealed and formally recognised for their achievements by IMG and the New South Wales Government. 

This year, perhaps symbolising an appetite for change, IMG introduced a new category for Sustainable Innovation, which aimed to recognise the Australian brands demonstrating leadership for best practices in sustainability. Husband and wife duo, Marnie Goding and Adam Koniaras of Elk, an Australian brand that is locally designed, independent and ethically sourced, took home the honour. 

“The introduction of the Sustainable Innovation award category allows our industry to acknowledge the efforts and accomplishments of individuals and brands who are dedicated to lessening fashion’s impact on our environment, and to celebrate the most noteworthy innovations shaping our industry and its future,” Natalie Xenita, the executive director of IMG’s fashion events group for the Asia-Pacific region, explained via a press release.

For more, scroll on for the complete list of winners and a sneak peek at their portraits from the 2019 Australian Fashion Laureate Awards.

Marnie Goding and Adam Koniaras (not pictured) of Elk won the Sustainable Innovation award, presented by GlamCorner.

Charlee Fraser won the Model of the Year award.

Ilona Hamer (not pictured) and Peta Heisen of Matteau won the Best Australian Emerging Talent award, presented by Etihad Airways.

Lee Mathews won the Best Australian Womenswear award.

Mikey Nolan and Toby Jones of Double Rainbouu won the Best Australian Menswear award.

Sarah Gittoes (not pictured) and Robert Sebastian Grynkofki of Sarah and Sebastian won the Best Australian Accessories award.

Deborah Sams and Mary Lou Ryan of Bassike won the Best Australian Retailer award.

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24th Oct 2019

Sustainable shopping is more accessible than ever with the City of Sydney’s urban guide to local hubs. Here’s a look at three inner-city neighbourhoods offering feel-good retail therapy that will set you ahead of the pack.

Sydney CBD
Whether it’s finding the perfect T-shirt or the best beachwear, hit the CBD for your sustainable fashion fix. Citizen Wolf is a Vogue Codes fave, this ethically certified brand uses its Magic Fit technology to locally produce custom-made T-shirts within 10 days of your order. All you need to do is pick your T-shirt style, fabric and colour, and you’ll have a T that fits you, well, to a tee. Then there is Tigerlily. Fashion with a conscience is at the heart of this label’s DNA. In addition to its signature boho beachwear, Tigerlily offers a range of swimwear styles using recycled materials that will make you feel as good as you look.

Newtown
This inner-city neighbourhood is brimming with ethically driven shops with a bohemian edge. The Social Outfit is here to brighten up your wardrobe, and the brand provides jobs to new migrants and refugees in production, design, retail and marketing. To go vintage shopping or swap your clothes to do your bit for the circular fashion economy and end waste, be sure to visit Swop, or stop by You, the Earth & Me and indulge in guilt-free shopping with this carefully curated selection of unique, handcrafted, eco-conscious clothes and accessories.

Paddington
If you’re looking for a high-end designer hub with an ethical mindset, these three brands will not only satisfy your shopping instinct but also your inner eco warrior. Kit Willow’s KitX label uses natural and upcycled materials and age-old artisan techniques to create luxurious ready-to-wear fashion with an ethical focus. Similarly, with its Ethical Clothing Australia accreditation, Viktoria & Woods’s pieces are largely made in Australia using certified-organic cottons, merino wool and bamboo blends. Each garment is designed to last for years, so it’s a good place to pick up classic wardrobe essentials. Bassike has also been sustainably made since 2006, so be sure to visit the store for go-to cotton jersey staples with longevity.

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